564 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



Ver}'- little inferior to the foregoing, as a 

 maritime tree, is the Scotch Pine, P. syl- 

 vestris. Its wood is superior to that of the 

 Pinaster, and, if the better variety, with 

 red wood, is obtained, a more valuable tree 

 can scarcely be had. 



Amongst shrubs, my experience is not so 

 extensive. The following, however, I have 

 proved to be fitted to stand the sea air. 

 The Elder, Snowberry, Berberry (Berberis 

 Aquifolium) and the common Broom. 



One other point has to be attended to, I 

 mean the size of the plants. Cuttings of 

 the Sallow will grow freely, and the other 

 plants should not exceed four years in age. 

 Plants which had been transplanted in the 

 nursery the year previous to that in which 

 they are used, are to be preferred to any 

 others, for such are invariably furnished 

 with small fibrous roots. 



With such trees, planted at the proper 

 season on well trenched soil, I should have 

 no fear of being able to raise plantations 

 on the sea-coast, wherever there is any 

 depth of soil. A beach of pure sand can 

 never be made to bear any sort of ligneous 

 vegetation ; but all other situations, and es- 

 pecially our watering places, which now 

 present a scene of frightful sterilit}^, are 

 quite capable of being made green and 

 shady. I am aware that sea-side planting 

 forms a work often undertaken, and as 

 often unsuccessful ; but still, there is a way 

 by which success is certain, for no tract of 

 land can be more exposed, or nearer to the 

 sea, than the "Boreas Plantation," now 

 flourishing in defiance of those obstacles 

 which, till lately, were considered insupe- 

 rable. 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



The Potato Problem: — The solution of the 

 Potato Problem is aceomplishpti. At least, Pro- 

 fessor LiEBiG thinks so. In his last work* he de- 

 clares that the potatoes are attacked with influen- 

 za. " The cause of the disease is the same which, 

 in sprinfr and autumn, excites influenza ; that is, 

 the disease is the eflTect of the temperature and hy- 

 gToraetric state of the atmosphere, by which, in 

 consequence of the disturbance of the normal trans- 

 piration, a check is suddenly, or for a considerable 

 time, given to the motion of the fluids, which is one 

 chief condition of life, and which thus becomes in- 

 sufficient for the purposes of health, or even hurt- 

 ful to the individual." 



To say that the potato ci-op has caught cold, is 

 new. But when we read in the same place that 

 the cause of the cold, or influenza, is impeded per- 

 spiration or " suppressed transpiration," the novel- 

 ty ceases. " The potato plant," says the learned 

 chemist, ''obviously (!) belongs to the same class 

 of plants as the Hop-plant, namely, to that class 

 which is most seriously injured by the stagnation of 

 their juices in consequence of suppressed transpi- 

 ration. According to Knight, the tubers are not 

 formed by swelling of the proper roots, but by the 



* " Researches into the mntion of tlie .Tuices in the Animal 

 Body." By Justus Liebig, M- D. Taylor and Wnltoii. Svo. 



development of a kind of underground stalks or 

 runners. He found that when the tubers under 

 ground were suppressed, tubers were formed on the 

 stalks above ground ; and it is conceivable that 

 every external cause which exerts a hurtful influ- 

 ence on the healthy condition of the leaves and 

 stalks, must act in like manner on the tubers. In 

 the districts which were most severely visited by 

 the so-called potato disease in 1846, damp, cold, 

 rainy weather followed a series of very hot days ; 

 and in 1847, cold and rain came on, after continued 

 drought, in the beginning of September, exactly at 

 the period of the most luxuriant growth of the po- 

 tatoes." 



In this at least there is no novelty. It is the 

 same view as that taken by ourselves in this jour- 

 nal in August, 1845, when the disease first broke 

 out, which was very generally adopted, but which 

 we have long since shown to be erroneous. The 

 opinion was just that which would be formed upon 

 the first hurried glance at the phsenomena, but 

 which a full knowledge of the facts soon compelled 

 its advocates to relinquish. The only material 

 difference that we remark between Professor Lie- 

 big's discovery and the old hypothesis now referred 

 to, consists in his introducing it in 1848 as some- 

 thing uew, and surrounding it with an array of 



